Audio Commentary Best and Worst

[moreorless]

Originally Posted by Himmel

The one with Ian McCulloch.

Not bothered with it yet but really I'm not surprised given his attitude to the film seems mostly embarrassment, would have been nice if they'd recorded one with Richard Johnson when they had the chance as he seemed far more positive. One of the few performances in a Fulci film I would care to here more about, generally I think the rest of the production is much moe interesting.

Alan Parker on Angel Heart and Birdy would probably my my favourite.

[cheez avenger]

The best:

Kurt Russell/John Carpenter - The Thing, Escape From NY, Big Trouble in Little China
John Carpenter/Jeff Bridges - Starman

Actually, all of John Carpenter's commentary tracks are great with the exception of the original commentary track he and cinematographer Gary Kibbe did on In the Mouth of Madness. That track was an obvious a rookie mistake for Kibbe since JC spends the entire running time prodding Kibbe to be more vocal on what filters and lighting he used for the film. It was a bore. That commentary track is on the original New line BD. The new BD from Scream Factory has a new commentary track with JC and Sandy King-Carpenter, which is cute and hilarious in parts. She was not a big fan of Robert Shaye and JC tries to "shush" her up in parts. They sound like an old married couple.

[beamish13]

Originally Posted by sxerunner

Sidenote:

I remember reading about a commentary where the director of the movie just eviscerates the film. It apparently was so controversial that it caused studios to start implementing the disclaimer we see today where they say the participants’ opinions don’t reflect the studio’s.

Does anyone know what the film and or commentary was? I want to hear it. Thanks in advance.

The disclaimer is a result of a commentary recorded by Nicholas Meyer (Time After Time; Star Trek II, IV, VI)

[Prog5000]

Spinal tap; entertaining commentary. Paired with the deleted scenes there is a lot more tap to enjoy.

[No Name]

There's a lot of pretty good commentaries to some underwhelming ones but I feel getting the perspective from film historians can be a treat like Stephen Prince as he's done some really informative ones as you get insight like his commentary on "Straw Dogs", "High Noon", "Bring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia" & "Kwaidan" to name a few.

[dallywhitty]

Originally Posted by beamish13

The disclaimer is a result of a commentary recorded by Nicholas Meyer (Time After Time; Star Trek II, IV, VI)

For which film was it recorded?

[Dubstar]

Originally Posted by moreorless

Not bothered with it yet but really I'm not surprised given his attitude to the film seems mostly embarrassment, would have been nice if they'd recorded one with Richard Johnson when they had the chance as he seemed far more positive. One of the few performances in a Fulci film I would care to here more about, generally I think the rest of the production is much moe interesting.

Alan Parker on Angel Heart and Birdy would probably my my favourite.

another film where the embarrassment is pretty high and overall general resentment/hostility is Malcolm McDowell's commentary track for 'Caligula' - his thoughts and comments make slogging through the movie itself far more entertaining.

[Martoto]

Friedkin's commentaries can be the worst and also the best at times.

[BOTRK]

The absolute worst commentary I've ever listened to was a DVD of "Wild Things", with John McNaughton and at least 7-10 crew members. Besides the fact that no one identified themselves when speaking so you had no idea who was making comments, all they talked about was the weather during filming and almost never addressed what was happening on screen. A complete waste of time. The runner-up is Jack Lemmon's commentary on the Pioneer LD, and now the blu-ray, of "Glengarry Glen Ross". Lemmon makes a few cryptic comments on the film in the first ten minutes and then spends the rest of the time telling stories, many of which he's told numerous times before, about his career. Another complete waste of time.

[mike962]

other 2 good tracks

- Deathrace 2000 (1975) commentary of Roger Cornan and Mary Woronov

- License to Drive (1988) commentary of director and writer

[IndyMLVC]

Originally Posted by moreorless

Alan Parker on Angel Heart and Birdy would probably my my favourite.

Did you hear his commentary on Evita? That was good as well.

[CreasyBear]

I think my first commentary track was Roger Ebert's for Dark City. Terrific stuff. His Citizen Kane commentary was also great. Wish he had recorded more.

[Jerry2345]

I remember loving Roger Ebert’s commentary on Casablanca.
I also generally love Eddy Mullers commentaries on film noirs.
Ronald D Moore’s commentaries on Battlestar Galactica were also great.
I also loved the original commentary (on the DVD) on Vertigo.

As for worst, I hate commentaries where it’s just people involved patting themselves and each other on the back. Generally, the more recent the film, the more likely it is that the commentary is much more “promotional” rather than informative... Same goes for other special features.

[Canada]

The commentary by the soldiers who fought in the Black Hawk Down incident is one of the best.

[Alister_M]

Best: Schwarzenegger/Milius on Conan the Barbarian and Schwarzenegger/Verhoeven on Total Recall

Worst: John McTiernan on Predator and any commentary by George Cosmatos. Absolute cure for insomnia.

[Lianzantoro]

Originally Posted by Martoto

Friedkin's commentaries can be the worst and also the best at times.

Did anyone else notice how much Friedkin sounds like Trump?

[cardiac161]

Michael Cimino's commentaries for The Deer Hunter & Year of the Dragon are fantastic!

[Monterey Jack]

Originally Posted by Alister_M

Worst: John McTiernan on Predator

McTiernan sounds exactly like Dr. Zoidberg on Futurama.

[beamish13]

Peter Bogdanovich’s are uniformly terrific

[ArtVanderlay]

*Ahem* Bey Logan's commentaries

Worst: when I accidentally selected the 'Joke' commentary on Dodgeball thinking it was the actual one.

Unfortunately nowadays I don't have enough time for audio commentaries or special features (Though I make an exception for Criterion special features).